The government is prepared to undertake diplomatic measures to appease Taiwan, and is confident that its explanation on the deportation of 14 Taiwanese to China will be accepted.

Taiwan recalled its de facto ambassador to the Philippines, Donald Lee, following what it considered an “inhumane” deportation of its “citizens” to China.

Taiwan also extended the screening process for Filipino workers from 12 days to four months, and withdrew the waiver of visa application to Taiwan for Filipinos holding visas to the United States, Japan and European Union member countries.

Song, based in the Shandong Province’s Heze City, in eastern China, is one of an undetermined number of other hacking specialists working normal business hours in Beijing to infiltrate the computer systems of energy companies in four countries — the United States, Taiwan, Greece and Kazakhstan.

The spy case emerged shortly after Mr Ma had instructed officials to resume referring to China as “the mainland”. China does not like being called China by Taiwan because it feels that conveys a sense that the two sides are separate. So too, however, does spying.

A buildup is underway to accommodate the transfer of 8,000 U.S. Marines and their families from Okinawa to Guam over the next five years, and it is estimated that some 10,000 overseas workers will be needed to work on various construction projects to accommodate the move, Aumua said in a press release, Feb. 7.

Within the next 60 days, the Guam Land Use Commission is expected to approve “conditional” use of the property site as a workforce compound so the construction of dormitories and other buildings can proceed.

Today in Okinawa, reality is sharply at odds with Hatoyama’s good intentions. Activists there say the Japanese and US authorities have begun a new push to break the 15-year-old stalemate over replacing old US military facilities.

The latest push on Okinawa also follows last year’s spat between Japan’s coastguard and a Chinese trawler, which badly mauled bilateral relations and added to Japanese conservative paranoia about Beijing’s strategic aims in Asia. Conservatives in Japan are now increasingly vocal about China’s growing military clout, with some speculating that it is operating spies and provocateurs in Okinawa, the prelude to an eventual claim on the islands.

Today’s edition concentrated on Chinese espionage, China’s development of its rare earth (RE) industry and the decline of other nations’ RE holdings, and a recent large-scale PLA military exercise inside of China. (It did not mention the PLA Navy’s recent live-fire exercise in the South China Sea, which reportedly included Chinese marines practicing amphibious maneuvers and coordinated air operations.)

I found the espionage pieces particularly interesting. One focused on the continuing “spy war” between China and Taiwan, which continues despite warming relations across the Taiwan Strait. How’s the old saying go? – “There are friendly nations, but there are no friendly intelligence services.” Too true, and I think that anyone who supposed that since China and Taiwan were making nice across the strait since Ma Ying-jeou’s election in 2008 that it naturally followed that espionage activity between the two would also fall is a bit naive. The Ma administration’s reported 2009 decision to discontinue the recruitment of spies in China, mentioned in the article, is incredibly short-sighted and certainly has not been reciprocated by the PRC. (In fact, I would be that with improving ties, China’s intelligence services are taking full advantage of the increased ease with which they can get into Taiwan, be it via tourist groups or student exchanges.) Just because there is a temporary rapprochement now, nothing says that China won’t break out the old “belligerence stick” and wave it this way again when they become impatient with the pace of their pursued unification, and when they do, one of the best ways to know how serious they really are about escalation could be from spies inside China that Taiwan unilaterally decided to stop recruiting – bad idea.

The other espionage piece in the report this week is about PRC efforts to infiltrate U.S. security services. The story discussed is one that I had heard of via other media sources, but the context in which it is discussed here – trying to determine if this type of infiltration attempt is part of a larger shift in Chinese intelligence strategy away from previous long-term efforts to use Chinese nationals towards one where they co-opt and then exploit non-Chinese American citizens who are not at the time of their recruitment in sensitive positions – is quite interesting and unique. I think the overall conclusion is that there simply isn’t enough information to know just yet if this is indeed a major shift, but it’s certainly something to keep an eye on.